current as of 13 September 2019

Manu Dibango to mark his 80th bithday with major London concert

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Manu Dibango will celebrate his 80th birthday later this year with a major concert at London’s Barbican.The saxophonist, an icon of African jazz, has a career in music that stretches back to the 1950s when the Cameroonian first made a name for himself in France and Belgium where he lived for long spells. But Dibango had to wait until the 1970s for his breakthrough, the funky ‘Soul Makossa’, a song that smashed into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. Identified loosely with prevaling 1970s African jazz flavours, such as Afrobeat, Dibango worked with the genre’s chief figure Fela Kuti during this time, and in the UK became a firm favourite at Ronnie Scott’s where he was a regular draw. The Barbican concert is on 26 November just over a fortnight before Dibango turns 80. MB